The second round of the A10 Tournament had its share of surprises. Arguably the most notable was St. Bonaventure became the first 13-seed to advance to the quarterfinals. Loyola Chicago narrowly missed being the first 14-seed to finish the same feat.
Scores:
George Washington 66 Fordham 62
St. Bonaventure 63 George Mason 57
Duquesne 67 Rhode Island 61
Davidson 64 Loyola Chicago 59 (OT)
Kenpom.com MVPs:
Rafael Castro, George Washington. The 6’11” senior standout scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots.
Frank Mitchell, St. Bona. The Bonnies reliable inside presence posted 14 points, shooting 7 of 11 from the floor. Mitchell also pulled down seven rebounds and had six steals.
Alex Williams, Duquesne. Williams led the Dukes in scoring with 22 points. The senior forward added eight rebounds and was 6 of 8 from the charity stripe.
Josh Scovens, Davidson. Scovens scored 13 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out a team-high five assists.
Fordham battled back from a 24-point first half deficit before dropping a close one. The Rams trailed by 21 at the half and by the 1:41 mark the deficit was down to just two. It was as close as coach Mike Magpayo’s group would get. Dejour Reaves scored a game-high 23 points for Fordham. It was his fourth 20-point game over a four game stretch. The Revolutionaries are back in the quarterfinals for the second straight season and look for their first semifinal since 2014.
Easily the most talked about game was St. Bonaventure’s win over George Mason. The Bonnies overcame a 44-33 second half deficit to pull off the win and advance to the quarterfinals. Two Dasonte Bowen free throws gave the Bonnies their first lead with 3:40 left. Bowen had a career and team-high 20 points.
Most of the talk centered around Bona coach Mark Schmidt. The ‘retirement’of coach Schmidt is a discussion for another time. It is safe to say in both the laSalle game a day earlier (a 99-80 Bona win) and against the Patriots, the Bonnies played with a sense of renewed energy and vigor. Simply, the team is playing for a coach they truly love and respect. The quarterfinal matchup with Dayton should be interesting.
Rhode Island shot 7 of 11 (64%) from beyond the arc in the opening half. The hot shooting allowed the Rams to reduce a double-figure deficit to seven at intermission. Duquesne pushed the lead back to 12 with 17 minutes remaining. Arche Miller’s group responded, getting the game to one possession with 10 minutes to play. Once again, Duquesne responded scoring the next eight points.
The long ball kept the Rams in the contest. Rhody finished 56% (15 of 27) from deep. Amazing stat showed the Rams hitting only 2 of 7 (29%) from the charity stripe. URI’s Tyler Cochran scored a game-high and matched his career-high with 34 points. Cochran shot 9 of 14 (64%) from downtown.
In a game featuring nine ties and 10 lead changes, Loyola’s Kayde Dotson’s three pointer with.4 seconds left forced overtime. The Ramblers have been decimated with injuries this season. As coach Drew Valentine said, “We don’t have a lot of bodies and everyone has played a lot of minutes the last few games but I thought they came out with an edge. So credit to our guys for fighting til the end.” Dotson scored Loyola’s only basket in overtime with a three to cut Davidson’s lead to one with just under three minutes to go. The Wildcats scored four straight points to close out the win. Valentine’s assessment on the injury situation was epitomized by Davidson’s 25-1 edge in bench points.
Quarterfinals:
George Washington vs. Saint Louis
St. Bonaventure vs. Dayton
Duquesne vs. VCU
Davidson vs. Saint Joseph’s